done this week

 

She makes sure we sit outside with her every morning... we are wondering if this is going to be a winter thing also and need our insulated bibs. It's nice to see the sun rise and enjoy coffee just looking across the land and not really thinking about what needs done like the pond needing another cleaning of cow manure. E is trying to borrow a small boat from his brother to help get it cleaned out since it was HIS COW.  Which is a lot of stuff to not think about aka house work, garden work, yard work, cutting wood. 😏

Windows are open and the AC has been off. That will change tonight with the humidity being high along with temps and Hubby putting in a 600 mile trip tomorrow hauling so he definitely needs a good rest tonight.

I harvested broccoli, cherry tomatoes, leaf lettuce (that came where I cut the head lettuce) green tomatoes, green beans, banana peppers , a small handful of red raspberries and a couple cups of blackberries.  I am trying to not use the veggies and fruit from pantry or freezers except for meat at this point. Makes for so weird meals as I did a quick stir fry on cherry tomatoes, banana peppers, and green beans with onions and garlic. The night before it was cherry tomatoes with ramen pasta and diced up shrimp in garlic butter sauce.

We didn't go to the store on Tuesday as normal after chiro since the truck was making creaky noises we went to our mechanic instead. Truck goes in Aug 2nd for work. We have blood work, chiro and voting that day also. Friday will be grocery day including stopping at Amish road side markets.

This week I have read The Puma Years (Kindle Unlimited) by Laura Coleman and 3 books by Ted Riley (Kindle Unlimited) Grid Down Situation, The Prepper's pantry and When Crisis Hits Suburbia.  FYI, Hubby is HAM radio operator, his group is connected to Emergency Services and Homeland Security. All the "solar flares" that NASA is warning about does trigger anxiety some what it could take out in the Emergency Services. I think the grid going down for almost a week just east of us taking out phone service along with the power also has  bumped up the concerns. 

Speaking of Grid down.... 

The Heco 520 and the 1 ton of anthracite coal  is to be delivered mid August. As of last week we had the final amount put in savings to pay for it. HUGE sigh of relief.

The chimney for stove ordered and money in the savings.

Solar deep well water pump will be in during the last of Sept. It's paid for but the batteries for it not ordered yet. When that amount is in savings then Hubby will order them. 

Propane due in Sept. We decided to cut the propane down to 800 gallons, might bring that up to 1000 if the Heco stove doesn't come in during Aug. That money (even if goes up to 1000 gallons) is in the saving as of last week.

Hubby thinks he has enough wood for this year. He just has to finish cutting it.  We wanted 3 cords hard wood and 1 cord kindling (soft wood and twigs) . He hasn't had much chance to cut wood with the rain. 1 cord is 4 ft by 4 ft by 8 ft or 128 sq ft. Any time the temperature goes down to 32 degrees and holds there we will be burning coal. We have paid $40 for the wood, the rest of it was free. Going rate around here is $300 to $500 for a cord of seasoned wood cut to order. 

The oil for the oil lamps will be in also in Aug. The money is in savings. The guy that will get the stove and coal will have the oil also.

Finances got a lot easier when a person owed us money finally paid it back. 

I put the money back to pay what we ordered plus extra for emergencies.  We are staying on the grocery budget and keeping the stock up separate with extra money so I pulled cash for the stock up so it's not tempting to get more than we have 

Then we looked at the stock up list that was a want if we had extra $$. 

I got pasta we were low on. We will be checking prices on chicken, peanut butter and dinner sausages (or bulk sausage to make dinner sausages since we don't eat a whole pound in one go) when we go to the store.

I rechecked the pantry to see what I have coming in and what I will still need to process, I will need to check with a couple of the Amish ladies about beets. I probably should have had Hubby plant them in the compost pile LOL 

In the garden... tomatoes have bottom rot, treating that and it seems to be getting a lot better. I think I caught it before it got bad. Second planting of green beans are blooming, some of the potato plants are blooming, the baby butternut is blooming , cabbage is doing good. I hope to make kraut this year. The red cabbage is slower but it seems to be doing good. Don't think the cauliflower it going to do well. 

There are blooms all over on Hubby's garden aka compost pile. The majority is definitely winter squash of some type.

Blessed Be

Stay safe

Prayers for peace